Catalinas Norte

Catalinas Norte was later chosen as the site for the Hotel de Inmigrantes, a facility built to temporarily house the over 100,000 annual immigrant arrivals, and completed in 1911.

Mayor Hernán Giralt presented a project to the City Council for the development of "an area of hotels, an office and retail center, a location for shipping companies and air travel, a recreation center and a large area for parking," and on February 3, 1960, the Argentine National Congress authorized the City to purchase land north of Catalinas for the purpose.

The Catalinas Norte Commission was established in 1961, but a subsequent political and economic crisis caused the project to stall and ultimately be discarded.

Mayor Eugenio Schettini instructed the Municipal Department of Architecture and Urbanism (MCBA) to design a new, simpler plan that would limit permits for office high rises.

A municipal ordinance in 1967 parceled the land in accordance with the 1958 master plan, and lots were sold to Aerolíneas Argentinas, Conurban S.A, IBM, Impresit Sideco, Kokourek S.A, SEGBA (the state-owned city electric utility), Sheraton, and the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA).

The MCBA, in turn, retained four areas, opened three parking lots, and built two promenades: Carlos Della Paolera and Ingeniero Butty.

[1] Ground was broken on the first buildings in the complex, the Kokourek Group's Conurban Tower (in April 1969), and the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel & Convention Center, on June 26.

[4] The complex, which by 2004 included 15 buildings totalling over 540,000 m2 (5.8 million ft2), was in the news during 2009 and 2010, when Mayor Mauricio Macri obtained the City Legislature's approval to sell the remaining three undeveloped lots.

[5] The combined land is zoned to house up to 120,000 m² (1.3 million ft²) of new office space,[6] and the city sanctioned the future construction of high rises of up to 50 stories, and 150 m (492 ft) in height (slightly more than the tallest building currently in Catalinas).